In this volume, a multidisciplinary group of acknowledged experts fully intergrate the physical, chemical, and biological sciences to provide a complete understanding of the interrelationships between snow structure and life. This volume opens a new perspecitve on snow cover as a habitat for organisms under extreme environmental conditions and as a key factor in the ecology of much of the Earth's surface. The contributors describe the fundamental physical and small-scale chemical processes that characterize the evolution of snow and their influence on the life cycles of true snow organisms...